Ernest and the Bales

Ernest, our recently adopted mini donkey, has very shaggy bangs that shade his eyes.  Unlike Rufus, who is grey with a buff colored nose and belly, Ernest is chocolate brown with long white belly fur and white felt around his eyes and nose.  When he's upside down rolling in the dust, his white belly fur really stands out.  When he asks for pets and scratches, he hangs his head low, like Eeyore, and doesn't understand why I want to raise his chin and kiss his nose.  Ernest usually has a big lump of half chewed hay in his jaw, which feels strange when I pet his face, and can't be good for his teeth.  Why does he do that? 

My horse owning friend is doubtful that Ernest will ever slim down, but Brandon and I think he may have already lost some of his extra padding.  Or maybe we've gotten used to his lumps and don't notice them as much now.  He's nice to pet on his chest and neck because his hair is so lush and his flesh is squishy.  Yesterday, he let me rub herbal fly repellent on his legs without making a fuss, which was not the case with Rufus, who gets suspicious any time I approach his back legs.  

I have four big round hay bales left over from last year, and we just finished putting away the first cutting of square bales from the whole farm.  Whew!  The big field in front of the house produced about sixty-three bales, and the long field on the side of the driveway made another twenty-two.  That's one hundred and twenty bales for the whole farm!  If we can get that many again, later this summer, I should have plenty to last the year. 

You mean we have to do all that work again?!

Although I think he was looking forward to putting the hay making equipment away for a few months, Brandon volunteered to cut and bale some of our good neighbors fields.  He didn't get very far when the pto shaft on the cutter broke, so he's back in the shop trying to solve another frustrating mechanical problem.  He doesn't seem to find it helpful when I suggest we go old school, and get a scythe.  But, Brandon, just imagine the abdominal strength that would come from all that twisting and slashing!  We could have hay plus rock hard abs!  

Its easy for me to make jokes, because I had the easy job of driving the jeep through the field while Brandon walked from bale to bale and loaded them on the wagon.  I did help unload them from the wagon to the hoop barn.  They are heavy and scratchy!  But they smell wonderful!

The hay bales from the front of the farm were much dryer and lighter than our first batch, from the zip line field.  This made us nervous about the moisture content of the first batch, and we found a few bales that were starting to mold and feel warm to the touch.  Hay fires are a real thing, so we un-stacked all the heavy moist bales and set them singly on pallets and boards with space between each bale so they can dry out and hopefully not have enough mass for combustion.  

That hay from the zip line field was really thick grass stems and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) vines, so it didn't dry very fast.  The hay from the front of the farm was full of yellow field clover (Trifolium campestre).  The yellow field clover dried fast, and made light fluffy bales of fine material.  Both the vetch and the clover are nitrogen fixing plants, so I think they mean good things for soil quality.  Hopefully the mean good things for goat nutrition too.  All the animals think it's very tasty!  Ernest has to stay on his diet, so I'm feeding the donkeys the left over hay from last year, which was cut late, and is stalky and has less nutrition.  Not fair!